


Ladies Do Our Best

by periwinklepromise



Series: Femslash February 2020 [19]
Category: Burlesque (2010)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Ali does not make a queerphobic joke at Nikki's expense, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Quotations, Canon Rewrite, Explicit Language, F/F, Femslash, Femslash February 2020, Full Service Sex Work (mentioned), Getting Together, Nuisances to Lovers, Oral Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:14:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22803148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/periwinklepromise/pseuds/periwinklepromise
Summary: Starstruck Ali Rose walks into a burlesque club on the Sunset Strip, and finds a career, a lover, and everything she's ever wanted.
Relationships: Nikki/Ali Rose
Series: Femslash February 2020 [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1619608
Comments: 11
Kudos: 20





	Ladies Do Our Best

Ali can barely breathe, she wants this so bad. But she fixes her boobs in her shirt, fluffs her honey blonde hair, and marches past all the half-naked girls to find this Tess person.

Tess is … not impressed with her at all. Which is super disheartening. But she can talk to Jack again, maybe have him force an audition? Or tend bar here or something? She'll think of something.

She is so busy thinking of what she has to think up that she runs into someone at the top of the staircase. The girl's purse falls, expensive makeup spilling out before she scoops it right back in.

Ali gets a pretty good look at the girl's boobs and butt as she bends, and all she can think is she is going to have to cram herself into her tiny room's tinier shower so she can let go of all this sexual tension coiling in her gut. _Jesus_ , these girls are all gorgeous. And that white fur stole! Ali could not rock it like this Nikki could, but by God, she would try.

Nikki was thin and pale, with dark hair that made her look dramatic and stylish and eyelashes that went out like, a mile. “Hey,” Nikki says into her mirror as she shimmies out of her outer layer, “Bring me a martini, extra dry, straight up, three olives. And hurry back.”

Another girl slides up behind Ali, squeezing her shoulders as she says, “She doesn't work here, Nikki.”

 _For now, that's true,_ Ali corrects in her head.

“Well, then, she's not busy,” Nikki retorts, turning to her giant bag of makeup.

The bustle surrounds her again, and she moves closer to get a better look at this beautiful, bitchy woman who can talk back to Tess.

Nikki huffs and bites out, “Your mama ever tell you it's not polite to stare?”

Ali blinks quickly and tries to bring her gaze back to Nikki's face. “You're just so damn beautiful, I-” Her words fade with a shake of her head in disbelief. How is this girl real?

She smiles, and it is not mean or defensive, just confident and pleased. “Well, in that case, screw your mama and stare away,” Nikki flirts, wiggling her shoulders and getting back to work on her face.

So she does. Ali watches her use all those different bottles and slim brushes, watches her face become flawless, tries not to blush when Nikki puts powder down her neck and onto her breasts.

When a girl almost runs into her, she decides it's time to move on. She still has to get a job, and she really wants it to be here. She just doesn't know how to make that happen.

She goes down the stairs and back to the bar, where Jack from Kentucky is wiping up a spill and yelling at the waitress to take out a full tray. The waitress has super cute pink hair, that's true, but if she keeps blowing off her job, she's going to get fired.

That gives Ali an in. She'll give herself an audition since Tess won't.

She's been a waitress, for that asshole Dwight, and for others before him. She can take drink orders and calculate tax and tips in her head, it's not hard. She watches the dancers whenever she can, practicing the cute little moves they do all in sync.

Then Nikki comes out all in lace and climbs on top of that chair with her legs spread and her arms raised, crying out, “Again and again and again!” and Ali about faints on the spot. She wants to see Nikki say that from Ali's lips between her legs.

“Iowa!”

Ali twirls around to face Jack, who looks annoyed. “What?”

“Table nine,” he bites out, gesturing to the drinks that are obviously ready. “Now.”

Right. Drinks. Tables. Focus.

Forget about Nikki.

*

Well, she can forget about that farm girl now. She'd been relegated to waiting tables and mimicking moves behind chairs when she thought people couldn't see. Pathetic. Tess will never hire someone so green; she cares too much about this place to take the risk.

That's why she won't let Nikki sing. “It's too risky, Nikki,” she always says. “They don't come to hear us sing.”

And yeah, Nikki is smoking hot, but she has more to offer. She does! Just no one will let her. It's fucking infuriating.

She pregames work with two shots of vodka, the cheap stuff because she has to pay for it herself at home. Just enough to get going for the night, another two or four shots throughout her shift to keep the buzz, another drink before bed so she can actually sleep. It gets expensive as shit after a while, and Tess could pay her more for all the work she does for her, but not when the bank keeps calling and everyone is saying the sky is falling. Once the club is saved, she can negotiate her stupid salary. And the amount of free alcohol she gets on shift.

And then Georgia gets knocked up. Won't even tell her boyfriend because she doesn't want him to freak and flee, but she told all the dancers, so Nikki has to pretend to care when they talk about it.

Tess and Sean have to hold auditions, and Nikki knows how much Tess hates it. It's an ensemble show, and it's a real bitch to find an interchangeable piece.

She comes in early with Georgia to spy on the wannabes – there's no harm on getting on Georgia's good side now that the fat cow has to quit. But there's not a kickline on stage when they file in, it's just the freaking farm girl who stares. Ali. Nikki hoped there'd be something there, that first night, but nothing happened. Whatever, she's over it.

Ali's just wearing a plain purple tee, black leggings, and some platforms that clearly don't give good enough support.

Tess runs her through the mill, and Ali … holds her own, somehow. Farm girl's not completely hopeless. She's sloppy, a little awkward with so many eyes on her, but her timing's not bad, and she's got good tits and a decent ass, and she knows how to use them, that's for damn sure. Girl needs a makeover and a better wardrobe, yeah, and some practice, but Nikki's not as against her as Tess is. The most important thing about burlesque is looking like the kind of girl an audience member wants to take home and fuck six ways til Sunday. And Ali can definitely play that part. Nikki could volunteer to play the lecherous guy in the audience. Ya know, to be helpful.

Then Tess says yes.

Ali squeals and thanks her a mile a minute, and Georgia cheers too. Nikki could be a bitch to her about it, but instead she asks Jack for a martini. He tries to give her attitude, but he hands it over and she downs it like a doubleshot.

Ali says she's gonna run outside real quick, and Nikki doesn't think, she just follows her.

“Hey, Ali!” she calls out. The blonde turns to face her, and those few seconds are enough to catch up, spin her against the brick wall, and kiss her senseless.

She tastes like strawberry lipgloss and all her hopes and dreams, and she presses Ali's shoulders harder against the brick to make her tits really pop. She rubs at one until Ali's nipples tighten and her pupils are blown wide. This is how she should always look. This is how Nikki always deserves to be seen.

*

Nikki takes her out for a mani/pedi to celebrate, and Ali keeps glaring at her for interrupting a perfectly amazing hook-up with nail care, but well, it's Nikki's treat! And Ali definitely needs some pampering, so she rolls her shoulders back and puts her arousal on hold while a lady rubs at her poor, overworked feet.

“I can't believe you've never gotten paws and claws done before. That is like, so regressive.”

“Shut up,” Ali pouts, “It is totally normal to not spend all this money when you can just do it at home.”

Nikki gives her a pitying look. “Not if you're a dancer, babe. You gotta start spending this money to keep your job.”

“With how much we get at this job, I can afford to start spending money on this,” Ali admits, wriggling her toes in the water.

“You'd get more if you'd give it away.”

“How would I get more money if I gave my money away all the time?”

Nikki looks at her like she's got two heads. “Not your money, you stupid bitch, access to your money-maker,” she says pointedly.

OH. Oh, Ali feels dumb now. “You mean, my … sparkling personality,” she says slowly. Nikki actually laughs at the joke, and she looks so pretty when she's happy. “So … have you?”

“Oh, of course,” Nikki shrugs, but she's not looking at Ali anymore. “It's no big deal. Good money, but it got exhausting, looking after men's feelings all the time. They're such babies, like boy, I'm not your mama.”

Ali doesn't know what to say to that, so she changes the subject. “So what's up with you and Tess?”

“What do you mean?” Nikki asks, still blasé.

What's the nicest way to put this? “Well, she's your boss, but it seems like you two go way back.”

Nikki nods, shoulders going back down from her defensiveness. “We do. I came with her when she opened the club, we used to dance together all down the Strip. We've been through a lot together. I was there for her wedding to Vince. And then her divorce,” she adds with a laugh. “Can't believe the club might actually close. I haven't had to find a new job in _years_.”

That's Nikki. She pretends to be all selfish, but she cares. Ali knows she does.

Then Nikki shows up to work, drunk and stumbling, breath vile enough to make the girls step backwards, and Tess says she can't go on. Ali should, instead.

She tries to say no. She does not try as hard as she could, nervous as anything and knowing that Nikki is definitely too drunk to be here. She drinks too much. She drinks way, way too much.

Nikki throws things down and storms off, and Sean is shoving costumes at Ali, and she can't think about Nikki right now, she needs to show Tess she's a good worker and a good dancer and that she can handle a small ensemble song.

So she shimmies into the fake leather bodysuit, slaps on way more eyeliner, and props the costume hat on top of her hair. She takes a deep breath before getting into position on her pedestal. Feels kind of silly to stand in front of a microphone just to lip-sync, but posing with a pole is easy money for the less mature members of their audience.

She has started mouthing her lines with the necessary attitude when the music cuts off. She gives a glance to the other dancers, to the stage manager. No one knows. She steps forward, blocks the light from her face and tries to get a look at the sound stage. She cannot see anyone in there at all, no shadows moving.

Nikki.

Nikki must have cut the music.

The curtain is falling. _They can't!_

“I need a tough lover, _yeah,_ yeah, yeah!” The curtain stops moving. She can do this, she can do this, this is Etta, she can handle this. “I need a tough lover, ooh- _ooh_!” She belts it as best she can, and no, she's not used to doing this where people can hear. And like, _care_. But she's going to give it her best.

The curtain creeps back up, and she feels her face split into a completely unprofessional grin.

She gets the other girls into it, and the energy of a live performance burns through the club until they're all running off the stage and falling into the other girls' arms and laughing til they cry, she did it, she did it!

She tries to apologize to Tess, but even Tess liked it! Wants to change the entire show just for her to sing live, a total dream come true, and she turns to hug Nikki...

But she storms away and leaves Ali hanging.

*

That two-timing bitch has a lot to answer for, and Nikki is not gonna let her get away with it. Nuh-uh, no way. So she camps outside the club until Tess leaves for the night.

And it's stupid, Tess is being a bitch for no good reason, just horrible, and she's turning it around on Nikki like this is her fault somehow? Fucking crazy. Fucked up.

So she quits, because she refuses to work with a two-faced disloyal bitch who doesn't understand friendship, forces her car into the right gear, and tosses out her final barb because dammit, Tess deserves that heartbreak right now, even if it's not real.

She starts to leave the parking lot, totally on top of it-

There's a massive crack, some sort of impact, did she blow a tire?

That... that fucking...

“You crazy bitch!” she shrieks before getting the hell outta there before Tess can use that tire iron on her face. She's so freaked out that it's kinda hard to stay in the lines and steer and all, but she gets home okay. She's still shaking from all the adrenaline, and she drops her keys on her doorstep, stupid things, but she finally gets the door open and spills into her place, shedding her purse and jacket and beret and cute little fingerless gloves she just loves.

Nikki pours herself a mug of vodka since all her shot glasses are dirty right now.

She shouldn't have said that to Tess.

It's gonna tear her up inside, and she never even touched Vince, Vince thought Tess walked on air up until the club tore them apart, and she stayed with Tess through all of it, and now … fuck! She's fucked everything up, and Tess is never gonna talk to her again, and Ali -

Fuck, Ali. She totally fucked her over too, and she was angry, and she was allowed to be! But that girl could sing, she never told her she could sing like that, how did she learn to sing like that?

She calls her. It's hard because her hands are shaking and she's crying, when did she start crying, and her fingers don't do what she tells them the first three times, but she gets the call through eventually.

“Nikki?”

“Ali, please, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, Ali,” she sobs.

“Nikki, slow down, I can't even understand you.”

“I'm sorry, I shouldn't have ruined it, I ruined it, I'm horrible.”

“You are _not_ horrible,” Ali insists, thank fuck, she's not mad, she's not mad, “How much have you had?”

“What?”

“How much have you had to drink?”

“Oh,” she scoffs, and then she coughs because it lands wrong in her mouth. “It's, that's nothing, I'm fine, it's not that.”

“Yes, it is! You drink _all the time_. You drink too much before work, at work, after work! You drank so much you got benched from your song, then you drank so much more you decided to call me and actually apologize for being mean! You never would have done that sober.”

She can't decide if she wants to say she's not drunk because she drove home fine or if she is drunk but would have apologized even if she weren't. So she sorta muddles through both.

“Yeah,” Ali finally responds, after making her wait for forever. “Right. Well-”

“Don't go. Please, don't go, please.”

“I forgive you for trying to ruin the song. A lot of good came from it, and I think we have a real shot at saving the club now. But you need to stop drinking. It's ridiculous, and it's dangerous. You could lose your job. Your car, your _life_ , Nikki, you need to be careful! All this drinking isn't good for you. Please.”

“Okay.”

*

“Are you familiar with _But I'm A Good Girl_?” Nikki asks from the kitchen, pouring herself a sparkling water into a silly plastic cup Ali bought for her from a dollar store. There were fake jewels poorly glued all around the edges. One falls off as she picks it up and moves to the living room.

Ali frowns. “I don't think so, who is it?”

“It's a Morali and Bernardin collab. An actual Crazy Horse Paris _classic_. I think you could convince Tess to do it at the club, she loves the history of burlesque,” she says, sitting down next to Ali on her couch and sipping her water. “It's every dancer's dream, I'm telling you. I have the instrumental around here somewhere, gimme a second.”

She finds it quickly enough, puts it on her half decent sound system she bought when she still worked at the club and wanted to practice her routines to make sure she was good enough. Doesn't matter now. Ali's the star.

She's trying to be okay with that.

“Look, it's like this,” and Nikki poses on her chaise, all sex and long legs like she does for Doctor Long John, and she runs her hands all down her body with the rhythm. And then she croons, “They all say _darling_ , what did you _do_ for those pearls? What!” she acts all shocked and innocent, “I am a good girl!”

She tosses her vest away, and Ali laughs. Then she loses her shirt, and Ali is looking at her like she did when she first found the club and tried to arrange an audition when there wasn't even a call for new dancers. It's delicious.

She shimmies out of her leggings, and now Ali is very interested, wrapping her arms around Nikki's waist when she leans over her lap to sing, “They all say my feet never do touch the ground!” Ali is most beautiful when she's happy, Nikki decides. And warm under her thighs. “And then you can ooh and ah and moan, and by this time you should actually be naked. Doesn't it piss you off we barely do real burlesque? You just stand there and sing in skimpy clothes.”

“They could be skimpier,” Ali agrees, before licking into her mouth and pulling her closer by her hips. She fingers Nikki's nipples through the rough lace of her bra and then bites down at the curve of her neck.

Her spine alights with a wave of sparks.

*

“What do you think?” Ali asks her as she enters the room, and Nikki takes a quick glance up.

And then freezes. She can feel her heartbeat. She can feel her blood rush downwards. Ali is wearing a sleek white-blond wig from Sean, those amazing Loubotins from Marcus that she somehow got without even putting out, and … pearls. Lots of pearls, fake of course, but good imitations, strung up along her breasts, down her navel and wrapped around her hips, lining the curves of her ass. She is white and cream and two bold flashes of red – those heels and her lips, and Nikki needs her hands on her now.

“Come here,” she rasps, “Right now.”

Ali struts forward, self-assured and sexy as hell, and Nikki's entire body tightens with need.

She forces Ali down onto the chaise right away, and she tries to squawk at the roughness, but Nikki is already sliding pearls up out of the way to breathe the hot musk of her in. She licks at her, already dripping, and Nikki smiles as she lays a kiss along the soft cream of her thigh. Ali is such a slut for her, it's heady.

She glances back up at Ali, her body stretched long against the black chaise, those ruby red lips parted and panting in anticipation. Her nipples peek through the pearls, and Nikki almost moves up to suck on them, but it's not Ali's favorite, and besides, she's very happy where she is.

She clings to Ali's hips as she licks in close and sucks on her clit. When she keens right away, she backs off, fucks Ali with two fingers, nice and slow and almost gentle. She pays close attention to what makes Ali gasp, what makes her moan, what makes her thighs tighten around Nikki's head, what makes her hands tangle up in Nikki's hair and tug hard.

She should have known Ali would be a hair puller.

When her lips start to tingle, Nikki curls her fingers inside Ali the way that has proven to make her lose her breath and sucks on her swollen clit. It is enough for Ali to fall into spasms, clinging at her hair, and letting out little whispery moans as she shakes.

“Give,” Ali pants, “Gimme a sec.”

“Nah,” Nikki says, wiping at her mouth as she moves back to inspect Ali once more – white wig slightly mussed, red lips still panting, pale legs parted to show the vivid pink where Nikki gave her pleasure. She kinda wants to go again, but Ali doesn't like rapid-fire the way Nikki likes to give it to her. “You'll mess up your makeup, I'm fine. Fuck, you look good.”

Ali pats at her wig. “Why are we having so much sex now, Nik?”

She almost brushes it off. But she likes this girl, likes the way she looks spread out beneath her, and she wants this to work. “It helps me relax. Since I'm not really drinking anymore. It's … a good release, for me.”

Ali shuffles her pearls around, covering herself back up somewhat. “And is it … just sex? For you?”

Nikki smiles a little. “No. It's more.”


End file.
